September 1 - October 29, 2008
15 University of Montana credits

Download the program brochure (PDF).

Program Overview

Northwest Connections’ Field Semester immerses a small community of learners in an intensive two-month program focusing on ecology and community-based conservation. Students learn experientially as they study the landscape of the Swan Valley and the human community it supports. NwC’s instructional philosophy emphasizes participation in conservation projects as a means of developing field skills. Students also work closely with local citizens and land managers in order to understand the relationship of environmental issues to rural communities.

Landscape and Livelihood’s residential program operates seven days per week, creating time for classroom lecture, field work, reading, reflective writing, independent study and involvement in community activities. Fifteen semester credits are earned in Forestry and Conservation, Environmental Studies, Recreation Management and Geography through a cooperative agreement with the University of Montana. Base camp for the semester is a historic homestead on the Swan River. From there, students travel throughout the Swan, Blackfoot and Flathead Valleys as well as the Swan and Mission Mountains.

Several brief homestays with local host families, a unique component of our program, connect students more intimately with our local communities and help put a human face on resource management issues. In addition to homestays, students will interact with local residents while participating in the annual Swan Valley Bird Count, community firewood day, helping out a ranching family in the Blackfoot Valley, and learning how rural residents make a living building rustic furniture and making medicinal salves.  Our students truly become a part of the Swan Valley community during their two-month residence at the Beck homestead.

We admit 10-12 highly motivated applicants who are passionate about conservation and willing to commit to an intensive, experiential program. 

"The semester is eye-opening.  We learned about the interconnection, the inter-relationship and how things work together as a whole.  And how important it is to think of people as part of the landscape, not separate from it."  

"We were brought into the community; we became a part of it."

"Regarding the Northwest Connections' staff, faculty and volunteers; "it's not just their job, it's their lifestyle.  It's part of their personal commitment, to pass on and to develop conscious minds."

"The semester took all of the black and white environmental studies concepts that I had previously learned in classrooms and from books and made them real and in color."

"I chose Landscape and Livelihood because I wanted to get experience in community-based conservation.  I usually just get a straight wilderness or wildlife perspective in college."

Landscape and Livelihood In The News

Montana transforms into classroom for some Whitties
by KARA MCKAY of the Whitman College Pioneer, February 14, 2008 (printable PDF)

Postcards from Afar: Looking back on the Fall Field Semester
by CORI STANEK for Northwest Connections' Field Journal, Winter 2008 (PDF)

Biofuels and Northwest Connections
by LEORA STEIN for Northwest Connections' Field Journal, Winter 2008 (PDF)

Collaboration in Ovando Goes Electric
by BRICE CROZIER for the Seeley-Swan Pathfinder, October 5, 2006  (PDF)

Students establish 'Northwest Connection'
by KATHERINE HEAD, Bigfork Eagle, October 13, 2005  (PDF)

Mills say finding niche key to survival
by MICHAEL JAMISON, Missoulian, October 4, 2005

UM students learn realities of landscapes, livelihoods
by MICHAEL JAMISON, Missoulian, October 4, 2005

Swan Valley Community Firewood Day
The Seeley-Swan Pathfinder, September 24, 2005  (PDF)